28 CHARLES II

Charles, in the company of Lord Wilmot - a
stubborn old Cavalier and father of his master's
future friend/* the wild and incorrigible Earl oi
Rochester - arrived in Paris at the end of October.
The bearcied young man who then greeted his
mother at the Louvre was very different from the
petulant youth who had left her at Beauvais two
years before. Defeat and hardship had finally
disillusioned him; he was a king without a
throne, a prince without a penny to his name.
But in the process he had become a man, having
learned in this hard school more of life than is
commonly to be found in Courts. Even Made-
moiselle de Montpensier noticed and could not
help admiring the improvement in his appearance
and manners. For he was no more the callow
young savage she had once known, who had been
so reluctant in his advances to her. She could
even listen to the dreary tale of his sufferings in
Scotland with sympathy that might almost pass
for love. But the days of love-making were over ;
Charles had lost interest, and she, in truth, was
too great a match for a poor, unshaven exile.

Indeed, France had no desire to shelter him
longer than was humanely necessary. For
Cromwell's power, now aimed at the destruction
of Holland's commercial supremacy, had become
the terror and respect of all Europe, and at any